Ralph's Movie Reviews: THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN

Friday, August 24, 2012

THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN

Fantasy drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS

Jennifer Garner: Cindy Green, tour guide

Joel Edgerton: her husband Jim, plant employee

Shohreh Aghdashloo: Ms. Onat of the U.S. Adoption Services

Dianne Wiest: Cindy’s boss Bernice Crudstaff

CJ Adams: 9-year-old Timothy

Emmet Walsh: Cindy’s Uncle Bub

Lois Smith: Cindy’s Aunt Mel

David Morse: Jim’s father James

Rosemarie DeWitt: Cindy’s sister Brenda

Odeya Rush: a young girl

Ron Livingstone: Jim’s boss, Bernice’s oldest son Franklin

REVIEW

Promoted as a Disney film, one movie-goer was heard to say “Walt Disney would turn over in his grave if he saw this one”. Unlike the great classic movies such as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, this one straddles the line between fantasy and reality. That’s a poor mix: it’s got to be either/or to make for a story we can buy into. So this one leaves me detached, just an observer thinking “why did they spend all that money to wind up with this?”

Another thing: three quarters of the people we get to see are either odd (the young girl Timmy meets once in a while) or nasty unpleasant folk (Bernice, grandpa James, Brenda, Franklin to name but a few) so it’s a pleasure to see them disappear from the screen with every scene change.

I should have walked out but I thought “maybe it will get better?” It never did.

CLASSIFICATION

for mild thematic elements and brief language.

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.